Theme and Diversifiers

Theme

All locations all over the world share the same theme for the jam. The theme is announced at each local jam site after 5 pm local time on Friday. Timezones from New Zealand to Hawaii are all participating. As Global Game Jam aims for all jammers to have the same experience they ask everyone to keep the global theme a secret until the last region (Hawaii) starts. The theme is announced on Global Game Jam’s social media and their website after Hawaii has joined the jam.

Diversifiers

The GGJ Diversifier list is aimed at providing an additional starting point for the game jam games. They can help you focus and choose interesting directions for your game project and add an extra challenge for the experienced jammers. The GGJ Diversifiers is a free-for-all voluntary list of secondary constraints, that the individual teams can choose to go for, or not, as they please. If they do go for one or more diversifiers, they get to tick off them as fulfilled when uploading their game. The use of the diversifiers as part of your game project is absolutely voluntary. If you are a first time team of students, we recommend that you focus primarily on the overall constraint (the theme and the time), and only add in extra diversifiers if you feel sure you will have something to hand in on Sunday.

Sponsored

Power of Community – (Sponsored by Mixer) – Make a game where community impacts your game. Players, viewers or streamers can enhance the game, change the outcome, or be a unifying force.

Puzzle design challenge – (Sponsored by Red Bull Mind Gamers and The Tetris Company®) – Make your game around, or inspired by a real world toy you have played with in your lifetime. (For more information, see here)

Language-Independence – (Sponsored by Valve Software) – Create a game that can be understood regardless of which language the player speaks

Accessibility

Let me show you how it’s done! – Make a game that is accessible to or represents your own disability, or that of a member of your team, in the way you feel all games should address it.

Celestial – An option to adjust game speed is included

Keep it simple – Make your game playable by people who can use no more than a D-pad plus 2 buttons, with hardware like an Xbox Adaptive Controller in mind.

It is dangerous to go alone, take this! – The game makes use of one or more system/OS accessibility APIs (PC, iOS, Android, and Xbox).

Meta

Recycle! – Instead of making a brand new game, start from an existing GGJ game from a previous year, made by someone you don’t know. Improve it and take it in a new direction.

Happy Anniversary – Your game should incorporate 2018’s theme (Transmission) as well as 2019’s theme.

ADL Identity Framework – Use this framework to explore how to use games and game design to explore identity and better understand yourself and others. (Created by Dr. Karen Schrier and the Anti-Defamation League).